Internship confidence and the daily grind

In one month, I will be finishing up my last day at the Brigham. A month is a long time, but the past two have really flown by. I’m at a point now where I feel really comfortable in my job, and I feel confident about my projects. I’ve been plugging away at a coverage report for marketing for the past two weeks, and I finally finished it on Thursday. I’ve reached a funny place in my internship where all of a sudden, my projects are suddenly MY projects. There’s a sense of ownership that I didn’t have before, something I didn’t even realize was missing! I’ve always liked this job and enjoyed coming into work, but now I feel like a fully integrated member of the media relations team, and I look forward to coming into the office—not just because I know it’s what I need to do, but because I’m actually eager to sit down and log in and get to work. I’m really excited about the next month—I think it’ll be my best month yet, because now I actually know what’s going on and I have the independence and confidence to get the most out of my work.

I’m about to start writing a media brief (of a study that’s still on embargo, so I can’t say too much about the content) and I’m happy my superiors are trusting me with this project since this researcher’s last study got a lot of media attention. I had a meeting with my supervisor today, and she told me I was doing well with the marketing project and with writing media highlights and tweets/Facebook posts. Obviously there is more to professional satisfaction and success than hearing people tell you you’re doing a good job, but it’s nice to get that reassurance since this is all still a little daunting. It can be easy to get caught up in all the things I need to do before I leave (and all the things I want to do!), but today I’m feeling satisfied with the work I’ve done so far, and relieved/excited that I’ve been doing a good job. This internship has been really eye-opening so far, in so many ways, and I’m ready to see what the next month will bring!

One thought on “Internship confidence and the daily grind”

Thanks for this update on your experience at the Brigham – you’ve clearly built a real foundation of confidence during your work – keep it up!

It’s so great that you’re feeling a sense of ownership of your work. This is not the case for every internship experience, and the fact that your supervisor and the organization are giving you so much ownership is not just a great reflection of their commitment to your development, but also to the quality of work you’ve produced and the trust you’ve built amongst your colleagues.

At times, with this sense of ownership comes an added sense of pressure for quality control. Have you felt this additional pressure since gaining more of this ownership? How have you been dealing with the weight of those increased expectations?

I’d also really encourage you to start keeping track of your work processes and outcomes if you aren’t doing so already – particularly now that work your doing is so self-directed and led! Having some sort of paper trail outlining your process and achievements can be so helpful when prepping for future opportunities and interviews where you may be asked about such things.

I look forward to continuing to read about your experience – keep up the hard work!